"Truth is a hard master,
and costly to serve,
but it simplifies all problems." - Ellis Peters

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

# 6 (yesterday) Shared Reading

I’ve been trying to write every day as part of my 2012 Lenten Journey. But yesterday I just didn’t make it.

This has not been a good week… I bought a new external hard disk because my old one was getting rather full. I didn’t expect that it would actually die. But die it did… BEFORE I transferred the important stuff. (Why on earth didn’t I start with the important stuff?!

So I don’t have a photo of my husband reading to our children. But reading to each other has been one of the most enriching aspects of our family life

When I think back, it was in the limbo at the beginning of our marriage - a time of :waiting for life to begin” - that we began the custom. Perhaps we would have read anyway – my family often read together. But with no home, no jobs, no clear direction even… we spent hours reading to each other before our first child ever saw the light of day – and we never stopped.

In latter years, its harder to get everyone in the same room at the same time - most of the family has married and have children of their own! But we still share books.

As I mentioned last year, our youngest two daughters discovered Audio Books online and now we often enjoy listening to the same books in our separate spheres and then talking about them together later.

When I lost the data this week, though, I realized that maybe money isn’t the only thing Jesus was talking about when he said: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.”

Audio Books are treasure indeed – they enrich our lives. But I spent hours downloading books I never read and movies I never watched before I lost them. Perhaps I should practice a little more moderation in my acquisition and limit myself to what I will actually watch or listen to in the very near future. Maybe the rest should go on my “Next Time” list.